Author Archives: hallachhalil

NFL Draft

Top 10 safeties of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We have arrived at the final defensive segment of our positional draft breakdowns! In this edition, we’ll look at the top safeties available, which is always a somewhat challenging group, just because of where you project guys to play at the next level already. Whether it’s cornerbacks who will make the transition or some guys who could be seen as safeties or pure sub-packagelinebackers.

This class includes three names just in my personal top five, who primarily played nickel at the collegiate level and actually project best to stay there as they move on to the NFL, but otherwise their skill-set lends itself more to safety than outside corner. The rest of the list consists of a bunch of combo safeties, who can fill a multitude of roles and will offer their future defensive coordinators flexibility in terms of how they’re deployed, even though they aren’t necessarily great in one specific area. That’s sort of a sign of the NFL becoming more split-safety centric, where those guys are asked to fill a lot of different shoes.

Here’s what the top-ten looks like for me, along with a couple of guys that just missed the cut:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 tight-ends of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We’re entering our final full week of positional draft rankings, as we’ve gone through an offensive and defensive group for four weeks already – running backs and linebackers, wide receivers and cornerbacks, offensive tackles and edge defenders, interior offensive and defensive linemen. Today we’ll be looking at what I believe is the best tight-end class of the last decade and then on Friday we shift to the safeties, before finishing up with quarterbacks.

Since I just praised the group as a whole, let me say that there are five guys I currently have top-50 grades on, plus another I have in the late second-/early third-round range. There is a certain drop-off after that, but this entire top-ten could potentially make it inside my top-100 big board next week and even beyond that, there are some intriguing options, to a point where we may see a couple TE2s stick on teams as undrafted free agents or at least late day-three selections. This is a class however, where I didn’t really struggle in terms of ordering the top-seven names. After that, there was some more debate for me.

This is what I came up with:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior defensive linemen of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Finishing up our conversations on the top linemen inside and out on both sides of the ball, we end on the best interior defenders. While plenty of these prospects have flexibility in terms of alignment, based on main position, this list includes anything from a true zero-technique nose-tackle all the way out to a base D-end in a 3-4, lining up at five-technique straight across the offensive tackle.

This group includes what many consider the most talented all-around player in this draft. After that, I believe there are two more guys worthy of going in the first round, along with another three names I have second-round grades on and a kid who will go some time on day two I would think, largely dependent on how teams value a fairly narrow role. After that, there are a couple of names I value higher than consensus rankings and I think you can find useful pieces for certain roles way down the line potentially, but in terms of complete players that will play on all three downs, the board drops off pretty dramatically.

Here’s what it looks like to me:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior offensive linemen of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Continuing our discussion on the players in the trenches for this draft class, we’re moving on from offensive tackles and edge defenders to interior offensive and defensive linemen this week. As always, we’ll start on the side that has the ball and then transition to the guys lining up across from them on Friday. This group includes offensive guards and centers, which I’ll clarify if I believe the names mentioned fit better at specific spots or if they are capable of filling multiple roles.

This isn’t one of the strongest IOL classes we’ve seen in recent years, but there are two prospects worthy of going in the first round, three other guys in the top-50 range and about four more names who could go on day-two. Where I was surprised as I started digging deeper were some of the guys currently projected to go sixth/seventh round or even undrafted, who I believe could stick on NFL rosters for a while. So they may not come up here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a bunch of guards and centers get picked late.

This is what my top-ten looks like, with a little bit of cheating and one name at the bottom, who I couldn’t really slot in:



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NFL Draft

Top 10 edge defenders of the 2023 NFL Draft:

This officially marks the halfway point of our positional draft rankings. We’ve already broken down the top running backs, linebackers, wide receivers, cornerbacks and most recently offensive tackles. So now it’s time to look at this massive group of edge defenders, which is a much better way to classify these prospects, rather than calling them 4-3 defensive ends or 3-4 outside linebackers. Due to how hybrid NFL fronts are these days anyway, I like to lump those together, although I will mention their best schematic fit a few times and talk about how versatile coaches can be in how they deploy these guys.

We have a consensus top-three overall prospect headlining this group, but I don’t believe EDGE2 is too far behind him, especially when you look at what the NFL typically values. After that, I kind of look at the class having three tiers, where the first one consists of four names, who I all have first-round grades on, then the three guys in the next group I think deserve top-50 consideration and after that, there’s at least another four I consider day-two prospect. However, even beyond that point, there are several intriguing players, who I think can have legitimate roles at the next level, with varying degrees of physical upside compared to pro-readiness.

Just to clarify – Northwestern’s Adetomiwa Adebawore, Auburn’s Colby Wooden and Michigan’s Mike Morris I have all labelled as “IDL”. That list will come out next week.

For now, let’s get into this edge class:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 offensive tackles of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We’ve arrived at the big-boy portion of our positional draft rankings! After already breaking down the best running backs, linebackers, wide receivers and cornerbacks of this class, we will spend these next two weeks talking about the guys inside the trenches both inside and out for offense and defense – and we are starting with the offensive tackle position!

I believe there are four small-dunk first-round players among this group, who can all be week-one starters, with varying degrees of technical advancement compared to physical upside. After that, there are five names, who I’d have no problem with all going inside the top-75, including a couple of athletic specimen, who aren’t close to the potential of players they can become one day. At number ten, there’s one more highly talented prospect, who may actually go earlier than a few names I have listed above him, based on the ceiling he presents. After that, you’re looking at more so serviceable players, who will largely be backups, along with a couple of underdeveloped kids you may want to take a flyer on day three, if you have the edges of your O-line secured for now.

Just to clarify – North Dakota State’s Cody Mauch will see his name listed among the interior offensive line.

Here’s how I have this group stacked up:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Switching back over to the defensive side of the ball here in week two of our positional draft rankings, we go from the wide receivers to the guys that will be lining up across from them on Sundays – the cornerbacks. I project most of these names to play outside primarily, but some of them may end up moving inside for their future team. However, I did not include names like Alabama’s Brian Branch or Illinois’ Jartavius Martin, who did line up in the slot for the most part in college and may also do so in the NFL, but project better as safeties, if they did side into another role.

Similar to the wide receivers, this is an incredibly deep group and I had to study more than 30 guys, in order to feel comfortable about my ultimate rankings. However, the difference is that we have two legit top-ten overall prospects and there are at least four other names worthy of being discussed in the first round. Beyond that, I think the rest of my top-ten and even the two names in the “just missed” category should be off the board after round two. And once again, we are far from done, in terms of guys I believe will find their way onto an NFL field.

I don’t want to waste any more time now and discuss this group:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 wide receivers of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Week two of our positional draft rankings is here. After breaking down the top running backs and linebackers in this year’s class, it’s time to talk about these wide receiver prospects. Once again, these are simply my personal rankings, without taking team fits and needs into account. So these boards will look a lot different depending on who you ask and especially with this position, I believe there will be a lot of variance for how teams have guys stacked up.

I believe there’s a pretty clear top tier, which includes four names we’ve all commonly seen get mocked in the first round. I don’t believe there’s a Ja’Marr Chase in this class or that this is as strong a group as we had last year, with Drake London and the two Ohio State guys. However, all four of these names should go on day one. After that, there’s a significant gap to the next group, which is where I have a few names mixed in, who I rarely hear being brought up. The rest of the top ten will all be top-100 prospects for me and at the end, I talk about one more guy, who I really struggled to find a place for. The real strength of this class however is the abundance of day-three targets, where altogether I watched more than 30 prospects with a chance of contributing at the next level.

Let’s dive into this:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers of the 2023 NFL Draft:

After kicking things off with the running backs earlier this week, we’re switching over to the defensive side for the first time for these positional draft breakdowns and look at this linebacker class. Especially as we get to these positions on defense, where what you covet depends so much on what your scheme asks of players and how play-callers utilize these guys, boards will look a lot different for each team. So this is just me looking at this from a more general standpoint and ranking these prospects based on how valuable their skill-sets can be for the NFL.

It’s kind of an ambiguous group of linebackers this year I believe, because as we get to the edge defenders a couple of weeks from now, you’ll see that there’s some overlap, where a player may be defined differently depending on who you ask. Wisconsin’s Nick Herbig for example will be part of my edge rundown, rather be listed here.

I don’t think there’s a single clear-cut first-rounder, taking positional value into account, but the first four names should all go in the second round and then there’s about seven names I think have a case to go in the third. After that, there are quite a few names, who can fill a certain role and contribute on special teams, but overall there are just too many guys I think are undersized or lack a certain quality, for me to call this a strong class.

This is how I have these names stacked up:


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